folkooc | February 2023 Test Drive Meme

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*tdm

February 2023 Test Drive Meme

FEBRUARY 2023 TDM

INTRODUCTION

[ TDM Questions ★ Jump to Comments ★ Full Navigation ]
Welcome to Folkmore's monthly Test Drive Meme! Please feel free to test drive any and all characters regardless of your intent to apply or whether you have an invite or not.

All TDMs are game canon. You can choose to have your TDM thread be your introduction thread upon acceptance or start fresh. Each TDM will provide a scenario for how characters arrive in-game that particular month.

Playing TDMs will allow characters to immediately obtain canon items from homes especially weapons or other things they may have had on their person when they were pulled from their worlds! There will always be a prompt that provides some sort of "reward" to characters who complete certain tasks.

Current players are allowed to have in-game characters react to TDMs via the Network or make a log with the prompts. Current players are always encouraged to tag new people on the TDM!

TDM threads can be used for spoon spending at any time by characters accepted into the game.

[ Prompt One ★ Prompt Two]

SPRING BREAKS LOOSE

Content Warnings: extreme weather

the time is near

The earth is awakening.

You are aware of this fact before consciousness truly returns. One minute you were a falling star but as your body reforms you can sense the freshness of spring just around the corner. In your minds eye you can see circling birds in the sky, feel the first warm breeze of the season, and hear icicles melting into crystal puddles.

But something isn't right.

The moment you are truly awake you find yourself in what could generously be described as a shack built in the snowy wasteland of Wintermute. You and another Star Child are at least being kept warm by an electric heater, but there really isn't much in the way of amenities otherwise. More disturbingly, the entire shack has a deeply oppressive aura to it, encouraging the pair of you to leave as soon as you can.

But where can you possibly go?

Stepping outside reveals the answer, as parked not far from the shed is a dogsled, complete with warm winter gear to protect you from the cold.

The dogs themselves are the real marvels; not flesh and blood, the sled dogs are in fact automatons. The winter sun reflects off of their silver and copper bodies and the steady tick of their inner workings breaks the chilly silence. Each dog has a key sticking out of its back, turning slowly.

The oppressive sense you felt in the shack continues to grow. Your thoughts begin to turn negative: sad, paranoid, fearful. It is quite unbearable... until your eye falls on a delicate splash of purple against the snow.

Close to the dogsled, a single crocus pokes out of the ground.

The very sight of it calms you down. Picking it will make you feel happy, and you will find yourself blurting out the first pleasant memory that comes to mind.

The robodogs bark, delighted, encouraging you to climb aboard the sled and look for more of those flowers!

Every crocus you collect will make you feel positive emotions and the urge to share good personal moments with your companion. The more you find, the happier you will be... and you might get quite close to a total stranger as a result as well!

in from the snow

While you are out and about, you'll want to keep an eye on your team of dogs - they can and will lose power after a point. Your job as a good dog driver is to keep them wound up! Yes, you'll have to stop and physically wind the dogs back up when they lose steam.

You are likely to discover weapons jutting up from the snow. These are all unenchanted items, basic swords, guns, shields, etc., but the second you pull them from the snow the weather will take a turn for the worse. You may even be subject to a sudden avalanche! Hopefully you got the dogs wound up enough that they can get you out of there without any damage!

Eventually the dogs will choose to take you to Akhlut Station in Wintermute where you can catch the train somewhere a little warmer.

BUT SO DOES FEAR

Content Warnings: Fungus, spores, live burial, mental confusion and hallucinations.

putting roots in my dreamland

Willow is definitely warmer than Wintermute. The tail end of winter means that while much of the farmland is still blanketed in snow, the more wooded areas have large clear patches beneath the conifers. The ground here is damp and rich smelling. Poking out of the soil are tiny white mushrooms. These fungi glisten wetly, strangely compelling in their little rings of earth. You just want to take a closer look... maybe have a seat under the conifers and listen to the snow melt...

The mushrooms enchant anyone who gets close to them into simply staying put. They cloud the mind, leaving you in a dimly pleasant haze, while your body sinks slowly into the earth. The longer you stay, the more you sink - maybe a passerby can come and pull you out! If you don't wind up suffocated by dirt you will find that your head clears on its own once night falls. You will probably still need a hand pulling yourself out of the ground, but at least now you know what's going on.

The woods at night are not still - there are mice and owls and the usual nocturnal critters. There is also something else, something that moves slowly beneath the trees checking the mushroom traps. About eight feet tall, this lanky creature resembles a human skeleton held together by muscles and tendons of moss and fungus. Its head is a huge mushroom cap, underneath from which glitter a pair of bright blue eyes. If it finds any unfortunates stuck in the traps without anyone to help them, it will push their heads beneath the soil and hold them there until they die.

The sight of this creature inspires feelings of disorientation and hopelessness. These feelings are lessened when you are in close physical proximity with another Star Child, so it is to your advantage to stick together. The mushroom creature's objective remains the same: to feed the living earth with your body.

The creature is not particularly tough - its flesh is soft and gives way easily. You can defeat it easily with weapons or even your fists provided you can get close enough without succumbing to the disorientation and hopeless feelings. Oh, and you may not want to hit it on the head...

The mushroom cap, when struck, showers spores everywhere. These spores burn if they land on your skin, and if they get in your eyes they cause vivid hallucinations of ghostly figures reaching for you, trying to immobilize you. These hallucinations are so real that it is likely you will act as if they are real, standing still as if you are restrained.

If you defeat the mushroom creature, it will dissolve into the ground and leave in its place a wooden chest. Inside each of you will find some canon clothes and/or an item from your homeworlds.

coast is clear

Not far from the forest treeline, a bonfire burns merrily in the center of a circle of light green tents. The tents are kept warm by portable heaters, with some containing food and drink, and others offering small packs of seeds as gifts. These seeds are for common earth flowers and vegetables. One of the tents provides first aid supplies, in case you got roughed up fighting a giant mushroom or something.

The tents are staffed by squirrels and chipmunks. Just plain old ordinary squirrels and chipmunks. They don't speak - only chitter and occasionally screech - but they will help as best as their tiny paws allow.

This is a good time to recover, and also to talk to any other Star Children you may see.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Uh, well, I'm definitely not a hundred years old." Steve almost leaned back as Ariadne leaned in towards him. He can't help the way he flushed a little being studied like that either. "And I've never been frozen."

He would definitely remember being frozen. That felt like something you wouldn't forget even if you did end up in an entirely new world with weird mind altering mushrooms.

"I think you met a different Steve Rogers," he said after a moment of thought. "Or maybe we just have the same name."

No, it was so much more than a name. But Ariadne decided to keep that to herself for the moment. She was scaring him. And that was the last thing Ariadne wanted to do. Ever. To anyone.

Her mother had been horrifying.

Ariadne was dedicated to being nice. Aggressively nice, but nice nevertheless.

She leaned back.

"Strange things happen all the time around here," she admitted. "There could be all kinds of explanations..."

He was not scared, just confused and a little nervous because a woman was leaning in close to him. Steve was never great with women in his personal space. He didn't have enough practice. At least he hadn't stammered when speaking.

"Yeah, I don't think I'm in Kansas anymore," he said dryly.

Steve sipped his tea, letting the warmth settle into his skinny bones. "Have you been here long?" he asked, curious about Ariadne more than this possible other Steve Rogers. Steve was still wrapping his mind around that which was difficult and he already had a hard day.

There was a war back home and he was here dealing with mushroom monsters and Disney levels of helpful woodland animals. That was wild.

"Eight months," she replied, suppressing the urge to ask him what Kansas was and how it was connected to the magical Brooklyn she'd heard so much about from...someone who was him but not him. Too much, too fast. And it would be selfish to satisfy her own curiosity, when he was clearly newly-arrived. That meant he needed help. And whatever she could provide, she owed it to him.

Huh. She had a birthday coming up. She would have to remember to ask what kind of sacrifices needed to be made to Thirteen.

But that was for another time.

She shrugged, her long, rope-like braid sliding over her shoulder and falling down her back. "Before that, I was apprenticed to the court translator of Princess Amanda Harkin, first of her name, sovereign of Valeria...which you've probably never heard of, but it's a very important place back home, where I come from."

Eight months. That seemed like such a long time. Everything else she said also ruled out them meeting in Brooklyn or during the war. She was from another world entirely.

Maybe that would've been more of a surprise if he hadn't seen inter-dimensional portals with monsters on the other side. Steve was already sort of aware of other universes. He had never considered it too deeply before. That was for Howard to figure out.

"No, I've never heard of it but it does sound important," he said with a little smile. "You sound important too. What's it been like here?"

Steve was curious about this place. It seemed nice enough even with the dangers.

Ariadne laughed. It was a bright, bell-like laugh without a trace of cruel intention. She wasn't laughing at him. Just laughing. "Important? Me? Oh, not at all."

Both because she genuinely felt insignificant, and because she'd carefully cultivated a life meant to escape attention. Being in Folkmore was still a learning exercise. She was still trying to embrace the idea of having notions and dreams of her own.

And getting better at it, some of the time.

"But being here is something special," she added. Which, in a way, did make her special. "Thirteen...uh...the Fox...who I guess you could call the goddess of this place...she sees potential in everyone. Even if we don't see it in ourselves and, well. I guess I'm learning a lot from being here."

A pause. She leaned in again, this time very gently touching his elbow. "A lot of people have a hard time adjusting. But I think it's so worthwhile. It's like...like an escape from destiny. If you believe in destiny."

"Everyone is important," Steve argued, a little offended on her behalf. She was definitely important even if her world didn't treat her as such. But she did have a nice laugh.

Destiny was a tricky thing. Sometimes Steve did believe in it. Why else would he have survived illness after illness to make it to the war where he could make a difference? Unless he was meant to be there. He was meant to pilot the Hydra Stomper and meant to push back Hitler and Hydra.

Then again, that also meant losing Peggy and all those lives lost in the war were meant to be as well and he didn't like thinking about that. It hurt to think people's only destiny was to die. It was cruel and heartless.

"I got a chance to reach my full potential once," Steve said, thinking about Project Rebirth. "But it wasn't my destiny in the end. It was someone else's and she was great at it too. I don't know if that could happen to me here."

"That's why Thirteen chooses us," Ariadne said. "So something could happen to you here." Although there was more of an element of choice than Ariadne had first realized, upon arriving. You had to choose to change. And whether or not it was in the direction Thirteen nudged you was, ultimately, also up to you.

She didn't much care for the sorting that took place: Legends, Myths, and Familiars.

But she was slowly beginning to appreciate that labels like that weren't necessarily destiny. Not at all.

"It's a lot to take in all at once," she said. "I don't want to scare you or overwhelm you or anything."

"Back home I was fighting these guys called Hydra and they were opening portals to other dimensions," Steve explained with a sardonic smile. "It's really not that weird to think some other being pulled me into a different dimension."

The learning something about himself part and choosing to change was interesting. He was glad this wasn't a realm of grabbing tentacles or evil blood thirsty monsters. There were weird mushroom monsters though.

"I'm handling it pretty well, I think." Steve didn't feel like he was on the verge of a panic attack or freaking out over it. Yes, it was really weird but things had been really weird since Project Rebirth. "I would feel better if I had the Hydra Stomper with me though."

Hydra? Had Steve--the other Steve--mentioned them before? He'd talked about a great many battles, most notably with Loki, which still didn't quite make sense to her. She would have to go back over some of their conversations again sometime.

Or just flat out ask him. Steve--the other Steve, again--was usually pretty forthcoming about his past.

For now, she tilted her head to one side, like a little bird. "What's a Hydra Stomper, exactly?"

Obviously something for...stomping Hydra? She had a feeling there was more nuance to it.

"Oh, it's a flying suit of armor that I pilot," Steve explained with a little bit of pride. The Hydra Stomper wasn't his creation but it was his suit and he really loved flying and fighting in it. "A friend built it for me so I could help the war effort."

It was the only way he could fight. A guy like him with all his health problems would have never made it in the Army. Project Rebirth and staying connected to that had given him the chance he needed to fight back.

"But it didn't come with me when I ended up here." That much was obvious even though he was still in his flight suit.

Sounded a bit like the sort of armor Tony talked about. Coming from Valeria, Ariadne knew a lot about armor, but had never seen any capable of flight before. In her experience, it was usually the people, not the weaponry, that could do that.

It sounded like Steve--this Steve--sort of missed it, though. And that she could fully appreciate.

Folkmore had given her back her wings. Perhaps it would do something similar for him.

"Thirteen may grant it to you as a gift," she said. "She's been known to do that, on occasion."

"I'd settle for a cane to help me walk around," he said with a little chuckle. "Do I need a flying suit of armor here?"

It was hard to believe a world with helpful forest animals was that dangerous. Steve really can't stop thinking about Disney and how this whole thing feels like something that studio would put together as a movie. A talking fox as the lead made sense.

"I mean there was a mushroom monster in the woods that I had to get away from but I didn't really see anything else that dangerous." Steve points his thumb over his shoulder towards the woods that he'd come from.

Ariadne--Disney princess that she could be--barely heard any talk of the mushroom, this time. She wasn't much of a medic, but when he mentioned the need of a cane, her eyes were drawn to the way his legs were positioned, and the fact that he was clearly favoring one side over the other.

Immediately, she sprang up into action, trotting over to a couple of nearby trees, examining their branches.

He wasn't as tall as Steve--the other Steve; oh, this was going to get irritating--so she eyed him a couple of times over, before selecting a bare branch that looked like the right size. Gently, she touched the tree, pressing her palm to the bark. "I'm sorry," she whispered to the trunk.

Her fingers twitched at her sides for a moment, before her black talons slowly slid out. Across the darkness, there was the sound of metal against metal. Like a sword being drawn from its sheath. And they were a foot long before they stopped growing. With a practiced motion, she swung, slicing off the branch in a clean cut. It fell at her feet and her talons withdrew immediately, so she could pick it up. "This might help," she said.

She turned slowly back to Steve, a little nervous that she might have just ruined the beginnings of a friendship by scaring him.

Those were really long nails. Steve's eyebrows jumped up as Ariadne went from a pleasant woman to a woman with swords for fingernails.

He figured out that she intended to make him a cane of some sort the second she got up. She seemed like the kind of person who wanted to be helpful. What Steve didn't expect was the giant claws she grew. Talons? Swords? He didn't know how to think of them but they were definitely really long and really sharp.

"Is that a thing you can do because of this place?" he asked slowly as he watched her come back with the branch.

It was a pretty good compromise on a proper cane. He wouldn't need it all the time but it should help him until his hip stopped hurting.

Well, he hadn't started screaming. Or demanded her head on a platter. But somehow, Ariadne had doubted he would. Even if he wasn't Steve--the first one, again--he was still Steve. So...a good person.

Thirteen liked him so much, she'd taken him twice, after all.

Still, she was cautious as she approached, careful to draw her shoulders in, make her steps timid and as unthreatening as possible.

Living openly was still something new to her.

"Um, no," she admitted, setting the branch down within his reach, before quickly stepping back, to assure him that she wasn't about to attack or anything. "No, that's something I've always been able to do. My kind has been able to do."

"Oh." Steve took the branch. "I guess that'll teach me to assume everyone's human around here."

If it was something she could do at home then it was natural. Kind of like his blond hair and asthma. There's nothing to be scared of because she wouldn't use them against him. She was nice and he had no reason to be afraid.

He smiled to reassure her. "You can sit down. Unless you're going to cut another branch?"

Steve didn't think she would need to. This one seemed sturdy. He was going to modify it slightly just to make it more comfortable to use but otherwise it should work for him.

A Steve was a Steve was a Steve.

She let go of some tension she'd been holding in her shoulders and sat down again, close enough to be sitting with him. But far enough that he wouldn't think she was about to jump out and strangle him. Or slice him up into ribbons.

There was a small smile in the corners of her mouth. "I wasn't doing much to disillusion you," she said. "I've spent most of my life trying to pass for Human. It's a hard habit to break. Folkmore is different though. No one seems to care what you are. It's strange, but another thing I like about his place."

"Don't feel like you have to hide what you are with me," Steve said as reassuringly as he could. "I'm the last person to judge someone for being different."

He started pulling the bark away from the top of the branch, slow and methodical to get to the soft smooth wood underneath. That would make for a more comfortable handhold.

"You're the first not human I've met and you're pretty nice." He smiled at her, once again hoping she'd relax. "And I bet those claws come in handy for chopping up vegetables for dinner."

Hopefully a little joke wouldn't upset her. He was trying his best but he still wasn't well practiced in talking with girls. He had no practice at all talking with inhuman girls. That was entirely new.

Chopping...vegetables?

She considered that for a solid thirty seconds, before she suddenly burst into giggles again. That same enthusiastic, kind-hearted laughter as before. "Oh, I'm a menace in the kitchen," she assured him. "I can't cook anything at all. I'm so bad, I was banished from the royal kitchens at North Castle. It wasn't my fault, I swear. And it was only a small fire!"

That story was, of course, much funnier in retrospect. At the time, it had been utterly terrifying. But Ariadne was very, very good at laughing at herself.

Again, usually in retrospect.

She glanced down at her delicate hands, so unthreatening without the talons. "They say my people evolved from dragons. I don't know if it's true or not, but it would explain a few things about us, including the claws."

Hey, it worked! Steve was relieved. He smiled a little easier.

"You could learn. It's really not that hard when you practice. I used to cook sometimes for my ma when she worked late. That way she'd have a warm meal when she came home." Steve's smile stayed fond and warm as he thought of his ma. He missed her but it was nice to remember her and the good days they had together.

The comment about dragons made his eyebrows jump up. "Wow. Dragons aren't real where I'm from. We evolved from monkeys."

Evolving from dragons sounded much cooler and would explain the claws. "Do you also really like gold and hoarding things?"

Monkeys?

All right, maybe she could see it. Maybe.

She shook her head at his question, though. "No, I don't have much use for gold. The only gold I have is a dress that Thirteen gave me once for a party in Folkmore, a few months ago." She loved the dress, actually. Mostly because it made her feel a bit like a princess.

Not that she wanted to be one. Ever. Still, it was a fun bit of make-believe.

"I do...like a kind of hording, though," she admitted. "I like to collect stories. From all of the new worlds that I'm encountering."

Steve shifted the branch around to stick the stripped end in the hot coals around the bonfire to further smooth it out. He left it for a few minutes then shoved it in the snow before it could get deeply charred or start burning. He just needed it warm and smooth, not on fire.

"Do you want to hear a story from my world?" he offered because he liked the idea of collecting stories. That was a great hoard for someone to have. "Since we're sitting around a campfire a story feels appropriate. All we need a s'mores."

As long as she also told them to other people. It would be a shame to keep all those stories to herself.

He certainly seemed to know what he was doing. Which was a great relief, because the last thing Ariadne wanted was for either of them to start a fire. For one thing, it would be somewhat disrespectful to the very kind chipmunks and squirrels.

She nodded, wrapping her hands around her ankles, pulling her knees up against her chest. "I'd like that," she said. "The story part, anyway. I'm not so sure about s'mores. I tried that once...the white, gooey thing was just so strange."

Mostly, she'd just gobbled up the chocolate.

Hey, cacao was a rare commodity, back in Valeria.

"There once was a god named Dagda who is said to have been the father and protector of the Tuatha dé Danann. He was very powerful but his most prized possession was his harp. It was made from rare wood, gold, and jewels. The harp would only play for Dagda and the music it played made people feel transformed," Steve started, sitting up a little straighter for the story. It was another thing his mother had made sure he knew, stories from his homeland.

"Now, the Tuatha dé Danann were at war with the Fomorians who inhabited Ireland before Dagda and his people showed up. They fought for ownership of the lands. During one battle when the great hall of the Tuatha dé Danann was left unguarded the Fomorians came in and stole Dagda's harp, thinking they could use its music to enchant their enemy."

"But the harp refused to play and Dagda figured out their plan so he follow them to their great hall where the Fomorians had hung the harp as a trophy. Dagda burst in during a feast and called for his harp which leapt into his arms. He played three songs."

Steve ticked the songs off on his fingers as he continued the story. "The Music of Tears which made every man, woman, and child in the hall weep uncontrollably. The Music of Mirth, which made them laugh hysterically. Finally, the Music of Sleep which made all the Fomorians fall into a deep slumber. After that Daga and the Tuatha dé Danann were free to roam the lands as they pleased."

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